City Hall agrees to issue building permits in eastern New Orleans after legislators criticize Nagin

Three months after City Hall started holding up eastern New Orleans building permit applications for at least 30 days, the mayor's top attorney said Monday that officials would begin granting the permits immediately.

That decision, based in part on an opinion issued last week by state Attorney General Buddy Caldwell, came hours after three state lawmakers called on Mayor Ray Nagin's administration to stop denying building permits to residents and businesses in about 30 neighborhoods.

State Sen. Ann Duplessis and state Reps. Austin Badon and Cedric Richmond said the administration had misinterpreted a state law adopted last year. The law is designed to alert neighbors to potentially controversial projects by requiring the city to notify the newly created East New Orleans Neighborhood Advisory Commission of all new permits.

Instead, the lawmakers said during a news conference, city bureaucrats had been telling applicants that the new law put a moratorium on building permits, or that permits had to be personally authorized by the three legislators or the neighborhood commission.

"I think it's ludicrous that anyone would tell anyone who would want to rebuild a home or start up a business that you got to go and kiss the ring of Rep. Badon or Sen. Duplessis or any other representative, " Badon said. "This legislation is designed just to provide notification."

The statute does not give the neighborhood commission authority to veto a permit.

City Attorney Penya Moses-Fields said Monday that the policy stemmed from a requirement in the law for the city to provide the commission at least 30 days' notice of permit requests, business licenses and other documents.

Moses-Fields said city officials implemented the waiting period only after the eastern New Orleans commission sued the city for issuing a dozen permits to developers of the Levy Gardens apartment complex. The suit claimed that project, off Bullard Avenue, had been approved by the city despite zoning laws that prevent construction of multifamily housing complexes without public hearings.

Neighbors also told Orleans Parish Civil District Judge Kern Reese that they had not been notified of the permits. The case is still pending.

Duplessis, however, characterized the city's enforcement of the law as an attempt to punish residents for seeking a voice in neighborhood development. She called the policy "retaliation" for the suit.

After Duplessis requested a clarification of the law, Caldwell issued an opinion Feb. 3 stating that the law allows the city to continuing issuing permits, so long as the eastern New Orleans commission is notified within 30 days of the issuance.

Moses-Fields said that after reading the opinion Monday, and reviewing a court transcript in which Reese states a similar position, she advised the city permit office to issue permits immediately.

She maintained, however, that the city acted properly. "It's definitely an overreaching piece of legislation, " she said. "It's ill-crafted and poorly written."

Badon said the Nagin administration's refusal to grant permits in eastern New Orleans sent the message that "you can't rebuild your home."

"We are working to try to get people to come back, " he said. "We're just trying to protect our community, just like every other community in New Orleans is doing."

Duplessis said she discussed the matter three times with the mayor before Monday's news conference.

"Every time I've spoken to him, he was very supportive and he understood, " she said.

Nevertheless, she said, the problem persisted until the attorney general rendered his opinion.

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Michelle Krupa can be reached at mkrupa@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3312.